“Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance.  In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always considered a sin. Therefore, no matter how the world uses the term, we must understand how God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit thereby.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means ‘hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.’ It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of ‘my will and not thine be done.’ As Paul said, they ‘seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s’.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: ‘Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone’.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“In the pre-earthly council, Lucifer placed his proposal in competition with the Father’s plan as advocated by Jesus Christ. He wished to be honored above all others. In short, his prideful desire was to dethrone God.

“The scriptures abound with evidences of the severe consequences of the sin of pride to individuals, groups, cities, and nations. ‘Pride goeth before destruction.’ It destroyed the Nephite nation and the city of Sodom.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“It was through pride that Christ was crucified. The Pharisees were wroth because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, which was a threat to their position, and so they plotted His death.

“Saul became an enemy to David through pride. He was jealous because the crowds of Israelite women were singing that ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’.

“The proud stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of God’s judgment.  ‘What will men think of me?’ weighs heavier than ‘What will God think of me?’”—Ezra Taft Benson

“King Noah was about to free the prophet Abinadi, but an appeal to his pride by his wicked priests sent Abinadi to the flames. Herod sorrowed at the request of his wife to behead John the Baptist. But his prideful desire to look good to ‘them which sat with him at meat’ caused him to kill John.

“Fear of men’s judgment manifests itself in competition for men’s approval. The proud love ‘the praise of men more than the praise of God.’ Our motives for the things we do are where the sin is manifest. Jesus said He did ‘always those things’ that pleased God.  Would we not do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather than to try to elevate ourselves above our brother and outdo another?.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“When pride has a hold on our hearts, we lose our independence of the world and deliver our freedoms to the bondage of men’s judgment. The world shouts louder than the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. The reasoning of men overrides the revelations of God, and the proud let go of the iron rod.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Most of us consider pride to be a sin of those on the top, such as the rich and the learned, looking down at the rest of us. There is, however, a far more common ailment among us—and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many ways, such as faultfinding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Selfishness is one of the more common faces of pride. ‘How everything affects me’ is the center of all that matters—self-conceit, self-pity, worldly self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and self-seeking.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that ‘only by pride cometh contention’.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“The scriptures testify that the proud are easily offended and hold grudges. They withhold forgiveness to keep another in their debt and to justify their injured feelings.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“The proud do not receive counsel or correction easily. Defensiveness is used by them to justify and rationalize their frailties and failures.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“The proud depend upon the world to tell them whether they have value or not. Their self-esteem is determined by where they are judged to be on the ladders of worldly success. They feel worthwhile as individuals if the numbers beneath them in achievement, talent, beauty, or intellect are large enough. Pride is ugly. It says, ‘If you succeed, I am a failure’.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“If we love God, do His will, and fear His judgment more than men’s, we will have self-esteem.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride is a damning sin in the true sense of that word. It limits or stops progression. The proud are not easily taught. They won’t change their minds to accept truths, because to do so implies they have been wrong.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride adversely affects all our relationships—our relationship with God and His servants, between husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, teacher and student, and all mankind. Our degree of pride determines how we treat our God and our brothers and sisters. Christ wants to lift us to where He is. Do we desire to do the same for others?” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride fades our feelings of sonship to God and brotherhood to man. It separates and divides us by ‘ranks,’ according to our ‘riches’ and our ‘chances for learning.’” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Unity is impossible for a proud people, and unless we are one we are not the Lord’s.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Think of what pride has cost us in the past and what it is now costing us in our own lives, our families, and the Church.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Think of the repentance that could take place with lives changed, marriages preserved, and homes strengthened, if pride did not keep us from confessing our sins and forsaking them.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Think of the many who are less active members of the Church because they were offended and their pride will not allow them to forgive or fully sup at the Lord’s table.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Think of the tens of thousands of additional young men and couples who could be on missions except for the pride that keeps them from yielding their hearts unto God.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Think how temple work would increase if the time spent in this godly service were more important than the many prideful pursuits that compete for our time.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride affects all of us at various times and in various degrees. Now you can see why the building in Lehi’s dream that represents the pride of the world was large and spacious and great was the multitude that did enter into it.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice.” —Ezra Taft Benson

“The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. ” —Ezra Taft Benson

“The antidote for pride is humility—meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit.  As Rudyard Kipling put it so well:

“God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble. Alma said, ‘Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble’.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Let us choose to be humble.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by receiving counsel and chastisement.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by rendering selfless service.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by going on missions and preaching the word that can humble others.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by getting to the temple more frequently.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by confessing and forsaking our sins and being born of God.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Let us choose to be humble. We can do it. I know we can.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“My dear brethren and sisters, we must prepare to redeem Zion. It was essentially the sin of pride that kept us from establishing Zion in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was the same sin of pride that brought consecration to an end among the Nephites.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. I repeat: Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion.”—Ezra Taft Benson

“We must cleanse the inner vessel by conquering pride.”

“We must yield ‘to the enticings of the Holy Spirit,’ put off the prideful ‘natural man,’ become ‘a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,’ and become ‘as a child, submissive, meek, humble’.”—Ezra Taft Benson